Contented Cage presses the flesh in Taipei Contented Cage presses the flesh in Taipei
National Treasure stars Nicolas Cage, Justin Bartha and Diane Kruger joined the director Jerry Bruckheimer and producer Jon Turteltaub yesterday at Taipei's Grand Hyatt where they met with the press before heading off to attend the movie's Taiwan premiere at the Xinyi branch of Warner Village. Cage dismissed claims, reportedly originating in the US media, that he was suffering from a minor illness and assured members of the media that he was not at all "under the weather."

The local gutter press attempted to pry into his personal life, asking several questions about his recent marriage Cage politely shot them down with a simple, "I'm content."...

Nic's knack:
Nicolas Cage lives in a mansion in New Orleans, was married to Elvis Presley's daughter and last July took as his third bride a 20-year-old former sushi waitress.

Not surprisingly, this slightly eccentric member of the Coppola clan usually avoids the press. But for ``National Treasure'' (opening tomorrow) - a reunion with Jerry Bruckheimer,the gold-plated producer whose ``The Rock,'' ``Con Air'' and ``Gone in 60 Seconds'' transformed Cage into a box-office heavyweight - the 40-year-old Oscar winner sat down for a press conference.

Nicolas Coppola Cage Insures Facial Expression
Hollywood wild man Nicolas Cage has become the first big Hollywood star to insure a facial expression. According to insiders the expression is officially known as "The shouty, angry, mad face" and has appeared in a number of Cage's recent films. Cage will receive an undisclosed sum if injury to the teeth, eyes or jaw prevents him from pulling the face in the future.

A subdued Cage spoke briefly to the press on the set of his latest feature The Sane Family Man Who Gets Angry and Shouted at Terrorists. "I guess my versatility as an actor stems from the fact my shouty face can work in a lot of different situations. I mean, I can be an insane bad guy one minute or I could play a good guy who had gone insane. At a stretch the face also works for the good guy who is totally sane but really pissed off. Its a face with a lot of possibilities and I don't want to run the risk of it getting damaged." Shop Smart couldn't agree more and think that Nicolas Cage is right up there with Sophia Coppola as one of the most talented members of a great showbiz empire.

Chris talking aout Nic here
"Coppola got early experience as a director growing up in Long Beach, making Super 8mm films starring his younger brother, Nicolas. "He was my first actor. He was always the actor," he says, drawing out his words in a sleepy elocution resembling Cage's. Coppola recalls one time when Cage, for a second- grade show, "sang 'Yellow Submarine' a cappella with cowboy boots and did this Jerry Lewis high-pitched voice for the chorus."

Nicolas Cage
Cage won the 1995 Best Actor Oscar for his riveting performance as a suicidal alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas, a role that also earned him a Golden Globe and Best Actor honors from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Chicago Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, the National Society of Film Critics and the Screen Actors Guild, as well as nominations from BAFTA and the Independent Spirit Awards.

Stretching his wings
He might not be every girl's dream guy with the awkward, neurotic looks that earned him starring roles in off-beat films like Vampire's Kiss and Leaving Las Vegas, but Nicolas Cage has proved that he is also a credible romantic leading man.

Cage Match
NICOLAS CAGE should play a messiah. He knows the false messiah's trick of playing a little man pretending to be a big man--and the magician's trick of pulling down outsized emotions from the skies. During a summer of paltry acting, Cage has been a lifesaver. And, unique for a big star, he hasn't played the same character in his two erstwhile blockbusters.

Un-Caged
And it’s not as though Cage is playing opposite a bunch of stiffs that make him look that much better. Sam Rockwell is an effortlessly charismatic presence who gives the second-banana part a prickly energy. Alison Lohman—a 24-year-old who plays 14 with scary conviction—gives as good as she gets while sparring verbally with Cage. They’re great supporting players, but Matchstick Men is Cage’s show because he knows how to give this kind of showy role heart. In his hands, gonzo still feels human.

Relaxed and Ready
"I'm ready to get back to work," he says, sitting in a hotel's vacant banquet room overlooking Park Avenue with a happy expression on his famous hangdog face.

Real Wild Child: A Tribute to Nicolas Cage In Person!
With his fearless comic performance in the upcoming Spike Jonze-directed, Charlie Kaufman-scripted ADAPTATION, and his stunning directorial debut with the haunting drama SONNY, about a young male prostitute in New Orleans in the early 1980’s, Nicolas Cage continues to prove himself one of the only major Hollywood stars

Being Nicolas Cage
In front of Connelly's eyes, Frank Pierce and Nicolas Cage merged, until they were nearly indistinguishable. Just as Frank couldn't quit his paramedic job, Cage could not, or would not, quit being Frank.

About Nicolas Cage
Wanting to expand his movie making options, Cage turned to action films. He starred with Sean Connery in The Rock, teamed with other "serious actors" like John Cusack and John Malkovich in Con Air and traded places and faces with John Travolta in Face/Off. From a triple play of action he turned to the love story City of Angels with Meg Ryan. He followed that with a trio of thrillers: Brian De Palma's Snake Eyes, Joel Schumacher's 8mm and Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead.

Adaptation Catalogue - Do search on Nicolas Cage
Go to this link and do a search for Nicolas Cage and you will be amazed with all the stories here!

Shooting the Breeze with the Windtalkers
"Enders is the most unhappy character I've ever played," Cage says of his sad sack soldier in Windtalkers. The movie made me pretty darned unhappy too, but I'm still looking forward to sitting down with the director, John Woo, and many of the actors from the ensemble cast. I am, after all, one of the few, the proud: an entertainment reporter.

Nicolas Cage's new role
"And that's the dilemma, I guess," says Cage, who awoke the morning after "Matchstick Men" premiered to a sold-out and satisfied audience at the Toronto International Festival to a headline in the local tabloid claiming he feared "losing his soul.